The Ostseebad Heringsdorf is an official municipality and a
seaside resort on the island of Usedom in the district of
Vorpommern-Greifswald (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). It was created in
2005 through the merger of the communities of Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf
and Bansin and, together with the Polish Świnoujście (Świnoujście),
forms the focus of tourism in the east of Usedom.
The
neighboring seaside resorts of Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf and Bansin grew
together in the course of time to such an extent that they were also
referred to as “The Three Sisters” in the 20th century. You are
connected to Swinoujscie by a twelve-kilometer long beach promenade.
The fine, on average 40 m wide sandy beach stretches a total of
42 km from Swinemünde over the Baltic Sea resort of Heringsdorf with
its districts Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf and Bansin to Peenemünde.
The "imperial baths" are characterized by attractive ensembles of
bath architecture, which often house hotels and holiday apartments.
In the village centers of the districts and often a bit away from
the Baltic Sea coast, old and new traditional thatched roof houses
are common.
In 2015, the Heringsdorf spa and healing forest
was inaugurated, Europe's first spa and healing forest.
Heringsdorf
Foundation phase
With the Peace of Westphalia
in 1648, Vorpommern and thus also the municipality came under
Swedish rule, after it had previously belonged to the Duchy of
Pomerania. After the Treaty of Stockholm on February 1, 1720, the
island of Usedom became Prussian property. After the administrative
reform in 1818, the area came to the Prussian province of Pomerania
and belonged to the district of Usedom-Wollin from 1818 to 1945.
Georg Bernhard von Bülow (1768–1854) and his brother had
acquired the Gothen manor, whose lands stretched as far as the
Baltic Sea, from the bankruptcy estate of the Mellenthin estate in
1817. In 1818 he had a small fishing settlement with a herring
packing plant built between Ahlbeck and Bansin. In 1820 King
Friedrich Wilhelm III visited Swinoujscie and was referred to this
fishing settlement. He then visited the place with his sons.
According to legend, which can no longer be traced precisely, von
Bülow is said to have asked the king for a name for the settlement.
The Crown Prince and later King Friedrich Wilhelm IV suggested the
name "Heringsdorf". Willibald Alexis is also mentioned as the
founder of Heringsdorf, whose real name Häring lives on in the place
name.
By clearing the forest near the coast, an attractive
view of the Baltic Sea opened up. From 1818 onwards, Bülow had about
50 acres of his land parceled out. In addition to the fishing
colony, plots of land were sold for the construction of
representative villas, primarily to aristocrats and wealthy
Berliners, among whom were many Jewish families. Georg Bernhard von
Bülow himself had three lodging houses, a community house and a warm
bath built. Bathing began in 1825 with the opening of what is now
known as the White Castle as the first guest accommodation on the
Kulm, a sandy elevation above the coast. Bülow also had the seaside
resort built.
Bloom as a seaside resort
Prominent
homeowners in the first half of the 19th century included the writer
Willibald Alexis, the actor Eduard Devrient and the legal historian
Clemens Klenze. Heinrich Laube wrote in his Neue Reisenovellen in
1837: “This small seaside resort welcomes those seeking peace and
quiet, there is no social building here, no actual season, the sea,
unlike Swinoujscie, is close by, poets who do not need a moving
world, who are half lonely looking for, ... resigned girls, ...
professor women with many families who need a lake wash, dieters
with strong principles and other honest people, all in a word who do
not want to swim in Swinoujscie or anywhere else in Häringsdorf. ”In
1846 the draftsman Wilhelmine Auguste von Schack published an album
with twelve views of Heringsdorf drawn from nature, which were
lithographed by Wilhelm Schirmer's student Carl Julius Henning and
which were widely distributed.
In 1848 the place got its own
church. In 1851 Georg Bernhard von Bülow sold his 800 hectare
property to Louis von Treskow (1799-1865). After he had invested in
the infrastructure and expansion of the bathing establishment, he
sold it to Hermann Weichbrodt in 1856, from whom the Count of
Stolberg-Wernigerode bought Gothen with Heringsdorf from the
Peterswaldau house in 1859. A high point of tourism was the stay of
the Prussian Crown Princess Victoria with three of her children in
the White Palace in 1866, which her husband, Crown Prince Friedrich,
joined. Since the widowed Countess Stolberg-Wernigerode wanted to
use her house herself in the following year, the royal family turned
away from Heringsdorf for almost three decades.
In 1868 the
Heringsdorfer Badedirektion received permission to levy a visitor's
tax. In 1871 the brothers Hugo and Adelbert Delbrück acquired almost
800 acres of forest and dune area on the beach as well as several
houses from the Stolberg inheritance. In 1872 they founded the joint
stock company Seebad Heringsdorf, which in the following years
ensured that Heringsdorf was transformed into an exclusive seaside
resort. Until then, bathers came mainly from the middle class, but
the place has now developed into a center of attraction for
political and social leaders. As a dominant feature of the seaside
resort, the hotel "Atlantic" was built in various phases from 1871
to 1903, which was named "Kaiserhof Atlantic" in the 1920s. be run
by the Berlin company Kempinski and should receive the status of an
official spa house. In addition to numerous other guesthouses and
hotels and a casino, a women's, men's and family bathing
establishment were also built. But there were also communal
buildings, such as the water supply for the entire town and later a
separate power station.
Until the introduction of the “district order for the six eastern
Prussian provinces”, the respective squire von Gothen exercised
police power over Heringsdorf. When the district of Usedom-Wollin
was redistributed in 1874, the Heringsdorf district was formed.
Seebad Heringsdorf AG had the Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge built from
1891 to 1893, initially with a 400 m long pier, which was extended
to almost 500 m in 1903. In 1894 the Ducherow – Swinoujscie railway
line was extended to Heringsdorf. Werner Delbrück, who moved into
the board of Heringsdorf AG for his father Hugo in 1899, established
the appearance of the seaside resort as a meeting place for the
"high society" and as a classy, trendy pool. 15 tennis courts were
built on which international tournaments were also held. From 1906
horse races were even held on its own racetrack. With the 41 m high
Bismarck Tower on the Presidential Mountain, the place received
another landmark in 1905. With Delbrück's death in 1910 and the
First World War, the successful times of Heringsdorf AG came to an
end. In 1921, the AG's real estate was sold to the Heringsdorf
community.
Interwar period (1918–1939)
Heringsdorf
remained a seaside resort for the upper class even after the end of
the First World War and the German Empire, even if the number of
visitors initially declined. The guests came mainly from high
finance circles, especially Jewish. In 1927, a brine source was
tapped with a 400 m deep borehole. In 1927 Heringsdorf was rated as
the German Baltic Sea resort with the most foreign guests.
After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Social
Democratic Mayor Walter Haefke was deposed. A thing site was set up
near the racetrack. While in the 1920s in the neighboring seaside
resorts of Ahlbeck and Bansin the anti-Semitism increased more and
more, Heringsdorf was still considered "Jew-friendly" until the
mid-1930s. After the district administrator Helmut Flörke (NSDAP)
had proposed that Heringsdorf be declared a "Judenbad", the
municipal council decided on June 21, 1935, "that Jews are
undesirable in the Heringsdorf seaside resort". In the spa
regulations they were forbidden to bathe inside and outside the
bathing establishments. Finally, on September 16, 1935, the
community representatives decided not to list Jewish hotels and
pensions in the spa prospectus or in the apartment directory.
1945–1990
Shortly before the end of World War II, the island
of Usedom was occupied by the Red Army on May 4, 1945. The Soviet
local commander Nazarow had the entire inner and promenade area of
Heringsdorf cordoned off and 41 houses requisitioned in order to
set up a sanatorium for Soviet army officers here on the orders of
the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD). In 1946 the
beach casino burned down. In its place the culture house with 750
seats in the theater hall was built by 1948. In memory of the writer
Maxim Gorki, who was in Heringsdorf for a spa stay in 1922, the
building was designed as a memorial. In 1950 the sanatorium was
closed and handed over to the GDR, which designated Heringsdorf to
be the “bath for the working people”. The 40 or so hotels and
pensions that were handed over were taken over as holiday homes by
the FDGB, the health service, ministries, the Central Committee of
the SED, social organizations and state-owned companies. The
centrally located hotel "Atlantic" with the attached warm and brine
bath was taken over by the FDGB holiday service in 1951 after an
interim use as a hospital and renamed as the house "Solidarity" and
reopened. This marked the beginning of the development of
state-controlled tourist traffic in Heringsdorf as one of the first
seaside resorts "for the working population, for international
tourist exchanges and for guests of the World Trade Union
Federation".
From 1945 to 1952 the part of the district of Usedom-Wollin that
belonged to Germany after the Potsdam Agreement formed the new
district of Usedom, which in 1952 became the district of Wolgast in
the Rostock district following the regional reform. This year, more
than 29,000 vacationers stayed in the Baltic Sea resort of
Heringsdorf. The high proportion of privately operated hotels,
restaurants and craft businesses in the region led to a wave of
expropriations in February 1953 as part of a political orientation
of the course on “creating socialist production conditions” for the
“Coast Holiday Campaign” - later also referred to as “Aktion Rose”
which was directed against hotel owners, entrepreneurs and also the
local beach chair manufacturer Harder. Several Heringsdorf hotel and
guesthouse owners were expropriated as part of the “Rose Action”.
For the Wolgast district, the action was led from the recreation
home of the People's Police in Heringsdorf, where around 80 police
officers were brought together for this purpose. The resulting
expanded capacities of the holiday service, contractual occupancy
regulations with small private landlords and the beginning of the
spa industry led to an increase in the number of holidaymakers by
almost double in the coming years. New forms of organization, the
inclusion of the surrounding area in catering to the guests and ways
to better qualify the staff had to be found. Individual houses were
gradually renovated, new gastronomic standards introduced and
gradually converted to year-round use. The community also tried to
beautify the area, above all to repair the damaged pier. As a result
of an arson in June 1958, however, the entrance pavilion has now
been completely destroyed. From 1961 onwards, the reconstruction of
the plant was completely stopped and the remaining stocks were left
to decay. In the years that followed, further improvements to the
recreational system were initiated. Several houses that can be used
all year round were handed over to their destination, a hospital, a
polyclinic, a service combine and the "Menuko frozen food" business
improved the care of holidaymakers. The training of the necessary
personnel was established in the village and on the initiative of
the renowned scientist Manfred von Ardenne, Heringsdorf received its
own observatory. In 1974, the Baltic Sea resort of Heringsdorf was
awarded the title of "State Recognized Resort". However, even at
this time, the planning specifications of the government and the
trade union federation for capacity expansion in many cases missed
the reality, especially the available resources, long-term
investments. The FDGB home “Solidarity” had to be demolished in 1979
after its structural deterioration. With this, a clear landmark of
the so-called spa architecture disappeared from the cityscape of
Heringsdorf. In its place was the holiday home of the same name,
consisting of two ten-story prefabricated buildings, which opened
its doors in 1984 and has dominated the townscape ever since.
Since the turn of 1990
The community has belonged to the
state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania since 1990. From 1991 the
town center was extensively renovated with the help of urban
development funding. This marked the beginning of an unprecedented
phase of reconstruction, construction and value preservation in
Heringsdorf, which was aimed at raising the place back to one of the
highest-ranking places in the seaside resorts in the Baltic Sea
region. Above all, it was necessary to adapt the necessary new
buildings to the architectural style of earlier epochs, to allow
architectural highlights to come into their own and to preserve the
Wilhelmine spa architecture, the actual urban face of Heringsdorf,
as a complex. In 1995 the pier could be put back into operation. The
complex of the former cultural center was redesigned as the "Forum
Usedom" with an emperor hotel, ballroom and casino. As early as
2002, the statistics of the seaside resort Heringsdorf counted 3,525
inhabitants, 6,148 beds, 158,722 guests and 898,742 overnight stays.
On January 1, 2005, the three Baltic seaside resorts of Ahlbeck,
Heringsdorf and Bansin merged to form the “Dreikaiserbäder”
municipality. On January 1, 2006 the community was renamed Ostseebad
Heringsdorf.
From 1994 to 2011 the municipality of
Heringsdorf belonged to the district of Ostvorpommern, which became
part of the Vorpommern-Greifswald district on September 4, 2011.
Ahlbeck
Ahlbeck was first officially called "Ahlebeck" in
1693. Ahlbeck derives its name from the Aal-Beeke (Aalbach, today
Beek), which connected the Gothensee and the Thurbruch through the
later silted up Parchensee with the Baltic Sea. There was an eel box
near the mouth, which is included with the creek in the Lubin map of
1618.
Bansin
Bansin was first mentioned in documents in
1256 as “Banzin” (Klempin) and “Banzino” (PUB II No. 630). In the
document, Duke Barnim I testifies to the exchange of the Grobe
monastery from a village in the Land of Usedom with one in the Land
of Lassan. An earlier mention of the place comes from the year 1111
as "Banzyno" in the registers or annals of the monastery of Grobe /
Pudagla. The year 1111 is so far not plausible, the register of the
monastery was only created during the term of office of Abbot
Heinrich IV (1394 to 1434), but is given according to the original
in the Greifswald State Archives for the period from 1111 to 1440.
With this and two further reviews based on Niemeyer's note, the year
is probably correct, but the meaning remains unclear, as no text
translations of the passage in question are known to date. The name
is interpreted as "Hummel" or "Brummer". This meant the current
Bansin village. The seaside resort of Bansin was founded in 1897
especially for swimming. At that time one could already learn from
the forerunners Swinoujscie, Heringsdorf and Ahlbeck and planned the
place very vacationer-friendly from the beginning, z. B. through
staggered villas that offer a view of the lake up to the third row.
Today the seaside resort has a closed and lavishly renovated
townscape with a splendid spa architecture that has largely grown
together with Heringsdorf.
Goths
Gothen was first
documented in 1339 as "Chute" or "Chutem", also "Chotum". The Slavic
name is interpreted as "desire".
Since the 13th century,
Gothen was, along with Mellenthin, one of the main estates of the
noble von Neuenkirchen family based on the island of Usedom.
The place Gothen was incorporated on July 1, 1950.
Alt
Sallenthin
In the area around Sallenthin, Bronze Age barrows
(1800 to 600 BC) and other relics, but also a late Slavic settlement
(1000 to 1200), are proven, but they are located on the municipal
boundary and belong to Reetzow. But this shows the early settlement
of the area.
Sallenthin, later known as Alt Sallenthin, was
first mentioned in 1254 as "Salentyn". In the document, the Dukes
Barnim I and Wartislaw III confirm that the Grobe monastery is
swapping the village of Schlatkow in the Gützkow province with the
knight Tammo for villages on Usedom, including Sallenthin. The
Slavic name is interpreted with "suffering", but also with "salty
water".
Until the Reformation in 1534, Sallenthin belonged to
the Pudagla Monastery, which emerged from the Grobe Monastery in
1309. In 1535 the property passed to the dukes, which later became
the dominal. Prussia, to which Usedom belonged after 1720, began
with the settlement of these state possessions after 1800.
Sallenthin was a small street village with houses of fishermen and
farmers who were dependent on the Grobe / Pudagla monastery.
In 1826 a new colony was established north of Sallenthin, that is,
farms of peasant settlers, including a Dutch windmill. This village
was first called Neu Sallenthin Colony, later just Neu Sallenthin.
That is why the former place Sallenthin was called Alt Sallenthin
from 1826.
The shape and structure have not changed since
then.
New Sallenthin
The place was only created in 1818 as
a small farmer colony on ceded arable land by Sallenthin. In 1826
this place got its name as Neu Sallenthin colony, later just Neu
Sallenthin. A Dutch windmill was also built, but was later replaced
by a steam mill in the nearby village of Bansin. A school was also
built around 1920.
In contrast to Alt Sallenthin, Neu
Sallenthin continued to develop. In addition to the scattered
settlement farms, a village location was created around 1920, which
was further expanded after 1945. Today Neu Sallenthin is a compact
place with a few settlements between the two Crab lakes.
In
addition to agriculture, tourism is the town's predominant employer.
Sellin
A burial mound from the Bronze Age (1800 to 600 BC)
was found northeast of Sellin, but it is modernly disturbed (plowed
over).
Sellin was first mentioned in a document in 1267 as
"Zelenin". With this certificate, Duke Barnim I gave the Grobe
monastery the village of Sellin with all its accessories and fishing
down to the Strummin. The Slavic place name is interpreted as "green
fodder".
Sellin was a street green village on Schmollensee, with the
function as a farming and fishing village. In 1835 the glassworks
from the 17th century is still shown in the PUM (Prussian Urmes
Tischblatt), but it is no longer in function.
The form of the
village has not changed until 1920 or today.
The Großer Stein
on the northern edge of the village has also been registered as a
natural monument since 1920.
Living spaces
Fangel
Fangel was first mentioned in 1799. It was a royal sub-forestry and
was also called Schmollensee because it was between this and the
large cancer lake. The name Fangel is interpreted with "coal",
"angle" but also with "catch" (= fishing tower = prison).
It
lost its function as a forest farm, then it was a residential
building with outbuildings and is now a small gastronomic facility,
as a leisure and holiday complex was built near the Schmollensee.
Jägersberg
Jägersberg was first listed as a place in the
register of places in 1906. At that time it only consisted of a
farm, the waterworks and the forest farm Wildpark according to MTB.
It is in the loop to the Heringsdorf terminus.
Today it is a
large residential area that can be reached from Ahlbeck via the
street at the railway depot. This residential area is relatively
separated from Heringsdorf by the old train station and the new UBB
depot.
Neuhof
Neuhof was first mentioned in 1618 on the
Lubin map as "Ninhoff". The name is self-explanatory. In the PUM (=
Preußisches Urmestischblatt) Neuhof is listed as an elongated
village, while Heringsdorf, which is close to the Baltic Sea,
consisted of only two buildings. Until 1920 there was a clear
separation between the seaside resort and Neuhof, the actual place
of residence. The place was still recorded in the topographic map
(TK 10) of the GDR from 1989, although it was already incorporated
into the seaside resort.
Neuhof was incorporated into
Heringsdorf on January 1, 1956.
Today only street names and
the UBB station name "Heringsdorf-Neuhof" testify to the residential
area, which is not considered a district.
Neukrug
Neukrug
was first mentioned in a document in 1394 as "de nige Kroog". It is
said to have been named as "taberne Tessentyn" and "der nige Krug"
(PUB V / 2 No. 3132) as early as 1317, this document of the general
confirmation by Duke Wartislaw IV. For the Pudagla monastery is
considered forged, like so many other documents Monastery. 1618
"Nienkroge" is mentioned in the Lubin map. The name is
self-explanatory as the Neue Krug (restaurant).
In the PUM of
1835, the small settlement northeast of Neuhof is recorded as a
restaurant with four buildings and as an independent place. In 1920,
according to MTB, this location was integrated into the Heringsdorf
seaside resort on the promenade at the Damenbad.
The municipality of Ostseebad Heringsdorf is located in the east
of the island of Usedom on the border with the Polish part of the
island, between the Baltic Sea in the northeast, the Schmollensee
and Gothensee in the southwest and the Wolgastsee in the south. The
geography of the three places is determined by their location
between the Baltic Sea and the lakes. The built-up districts are at
a height of about 6 m above sea level.
Heringsdorf forms a
basic center for its surroundings. The equipment of the neighboring
city of Swinoujscie is like a medium-sized center.
North of
Bansin is a 600 hectare mixed forest area with the three elevations
Langer Berg and Platter Berg, each 54 m above sea level. and the
Schäferberg at 41 m above sea level. The Presidential Mountain rises
45 m above sea level southwest of Heringsdorf. in an approximately
225 hectare mixed forest. Between the southern municipal border on
Wolgastsee, the state border with Poland and the Baltic Sea, there
is another mixed and coniferous forest area of 550 hectares with
the highest elevation in the municipality, the Zirowberg at 60 m
above sea level. Directly south of the village of Ahlbeck there is a
110 hectare wet meadow area with a height of 0.1 m above sea level.
that is drained from the Beek into the Gothensee.